SUBJECTS: 'Hot Albo'; Anthony Albanese’s doppelganger; 'DJ Albo'; Reclink Community Cup; the Federal Government’s tourism package; challenges facing the aviation sector; visit to the Surf Coast; using round tables for roundtable discussions; aged care. 

TOM LEWIS, HOST: We had Federal Treasurer Josh Frydenberg on about an hour ago to tell us all about it. And it’s only fair that we should now have the Leader of the Opposition, Anthony Albanese, or, as I’m calling him, 'Hot Albo', on the show. Good morning. 

ANTHONY ALBANESE, LEADER OF THE AUSTRALIAN LABOR PARTY: Good morning. How are you? 

LEWIS: Really good thanks, mate. Sorry, we’ve not had a chance. 

ALBANESE: You’re looking at very old photos, obviously. 

LAUREN 'LOGGY' TEMUSKOS, HOST: We’ve been googling baby, don’t you worry about that. 

LEWIS: Lots to talk about, mate. But thank you so much for coming on the show. We’ve not had a chance to chat to you before so there’s a bit of gear we want to get out of the way first, if you don’t mind? 

ALBANESE: Sure. 

LEWIS: My uncle who lives in Brisbane looks like a doppelganger of you. And he knows it and he owns it because he knows that you’re 'Hot Albo' so he’s like, ‘I’m happy to look exactly like Anthony Albanese’. 

ALBANESE: And is he a good fellow though? Is he a good uncle? 

LEWIS: He’s an amazing uncle. 

ALBANESE: Looks after you, always remembers birthdays? 

LEWIS: Well, not so much the birthdays. But he does look after me. So he’s alright. He goes alright. So I just want you to know that there's someone out there that looks almost identical to you and I can forward a photo of him to your office if you’d like. 

ALBANESE: Yes, do that. I might catch up with him. That could be useful at some time. 

TEMUSKOS: It doesn't sound like he's scared at all, Tom. 

ALBANESE: No. I could double my profile. 

TEMUSKOS: That’s it. 

LEWIS: Be in two places at once. Now, do you want to talk about DJ Albo at all, Loggy? 

TEMUSKOS: I've heard you used to do some mad stuff on the decks, DJ Albo. Are you planning on bringing that any of that to town today? 

ALBANESE: I'm not bringing it to the coast today. But I do occasionally still do it for charity and for a bit of fun. 

TEMUSKOS: Vinyl or CDs? 

ALBANESE: I’ve done both. I recently did, there’s a place in my electorate called Cottonmouth Records that advertises itself as vinyl, beer and whiskey. (Inaudible). And they have just vinyl. So the last place I DJed was there actually for Reclink Community Cup. That's a big deal, beginning in Victoria here, raises money that looks after, really tries to connect young people back up with mainstream society through, you know who have fallen into a bit of trouble, might have been engaged with drugs or alcohol or homelessness, and that provides great welfare. And it connects them up through art and sport. And people like Tex Perkins and Paul Kelly and people like that were very involved in establishing that.

TEMUSKOS: Well done. 

LEWIS: So let's talk about the big news out this morning and this tourism package that's been announced by the Federal Government. What are your thoughts on that? What's your response to it? 

ALBANESE: Look, it’s about time there was some more support for the tourism sector. So we welcome any support that is there. The tourism sector are really struggling in many areas. In some areas they've done okay, where people could drive to some of the regions that are closer to the capital cities, they’ve been pretty much full. But the aviation sector in particular has obviously really struggled. We've got to remember though that it's already been 10,000 jobs lost. And there are a whole lot of areas that are still missing out but never received any support. Like some of the dnata workers who do baggage handling, they missed out on JobKeeper. And, of course, Virgin Australia have had some real problems. Qantas have lost 8,500 workers. So, we do need to make sure that we keep the aviation sector going. It's really important for a country with our population, spread as we are over such a vast continent, and of course we need we need aviation to connect with the world as well. 

TEMUSKOS: Now, you're a travel guy. You’re here, there and everywhere. But today you're actually in our region. What are you doing down the Surf Coast today? 

ALBANESE: I am. I'm really looking forward to, one of the meetings I have today of course is with Libby Coker. We’re having a roundtable with tourism operators down at Torquay. And we're also visiting an aged care facility in Grovedale. That's been a big focus, of course, and I'll be with, the Aged Care Shadow’s coming down as well, Clare O'Neil. And I'm also going to an interesting place, JUC Surfboards. They're doing carbon fibre surfboards from recycled materials. So that’ll be really good. Richard Marles is joining us for that. I think he might be going out for a surf. We’ll send him out. LEWIS: I was going to ask you. Are you going to get in the sea? 

ALBANESE: Well, that's why they give us deputies, you see. So we can deputise jobs that we might not necessarily want to do ourselves. So Richard, get ready, if you’re listening. Bring the wetsuit. 

LEWIS: So you’ll be meeting with some of the tourism bodies and whatnot down here and people that have been affected and Libby Coker will be joining you. What are you going to be proposing or are you going to be doing mainly listening? 

ALBANESE: Look, mainly listening is what we're doing. We're preparing, of course, as an Opposition you prepare alternative policies that you want to take to the election and implement in government. Tourism’s really a vital sector. I was the Tourism Shadow Minister for six years. It's a passion of mine. Sustainable jobs, it’s so important for the Surf Coast there. And Libby Coker certainly is very passionate about it as well as she's been really excited to get me down. It’s been difficult, of course, to travel in 2020. So I'm really looking forward to the day. And then we're having a bit of an event as well at the end of the day to sort of close up and we're having a bit of a politics in the pub event as well. 

TEMUSKOS: Which pub? 

ALBANESE: At the Hop Inn. 

TEMUSKOS: Hop Inn. Nice. 

ALBANESE: It’s a big day. 

TEMUSKOS: Okay, cool. Hey, before we let you go, we know you're a busy man. And Tom thinks that maybe this might be a silly question. But you know you have the roundtable discussions. Does it have to specifically be on a round table? Like, who organises the table? Or is a rectangular table. I know that sounds stupid, but I feel like maybe it is specifically round. Am I right there? 

ALBANESE: Well the whole idea of a round table is because everyone's facing everyone else. Whereas the dynamic is different on a rectangular table. 

TEMUSKOS: It really is, Albo. 

ALBANESE: It’s a different thing. And don’t even get me started with square. LEWIS: Alright I think that’s where we’ll leave it. 

ALBANESE: Or triangle. Triangle can get you in real trouble. 

TEMUSKOS: Yes it can. Yes it can. 

ALBANESE: So Libby Coker, get the round table ready. 

LEWIS: Wonderful. I was wondering who was supplying the table. Look, I hope you have a great time, or we hope you have a great time, down particularly the Surf Coast but in Grovedale as well today and get some great results. 

ALBANESE: That’s right. Well, aged care’s so important. There's been quite a tale of woe through the Royal Commission. It was titled ‘Neglect’, of course. And we're a better country than that. We need to respect our older Australians and look after them. 

LEWIS: A hundred per cent. Alright, Anthony Albanese, thanks for your time. 

ALBANESE: Cheers, good to be with you. I look forward to meeting your uncle. 

ENDS